No Family Should Lose Access to Water Because They Can't Afford Justice.
Imagine opening your water bill and discovering that what was once an ordinary residential account has grown into a disputed balance of more than $12,000—all while your family faces the ongoing threat of losing access to your only source of drinking water.
Now imagine being told to "work it out with the utility."
Except there is no customer service office to visit. No publicly available customer handbook explaining your rights. No published dispute process. No meaningful regulatory agency that can step in and resolve the problem. And because this is the only water provider serving your home, you can't simply switch to another company.
That is the reality that my family—and many of our neighbors in Parkdale, Oregon—have been living for nearly a year.
This Is Bigger Than One Family
Parkdale Water Company is a privately owned drinking water utility serving approximately 204 households and businesses in the upper Hood River Valley.
What began as questions about one disputed account quickly led to much larger concerns.
Customers have reported issues involving:
• Excessive and disputed billing
• Missing and reconstructed records
• Conflicting account histories
• Communication failures
• Infrastructure concerns
• Property damage associated with water system issues
• Sinkholes developing near utility infrastructure, including along our primary ingress and egress routes
• Questions regarding utility governance and shareholder rights
These concerns are not limited to our family.
We asked customers to share their experiences with the utility. Twenty-one customers responded, describing concerns involving billing disputes, recordkeeping, communication difficulties, service issues, property damages, and challenges obtaining meaningful resolution.
Nearly 95% of survey respondents reported difficulty simply contacting the utility.
We Followed Every Step We Were Told To Take
For nearly a year, we have done everything we were told to do.
We contacted:
• Oregon Public Utility Commission
• Oregon Department of Justice
• Oregon Health Authority
• Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
• Federal Trade Commission
• Rural Community Assistance Corporation
• State legislators
• The Governor's Office
• Numerous additional agencies and organizations
Many officials acknowledged that legitimate concerns exist.
Unfortunately, no agency has been able to provide meaningful relief.
Instead, we have repeatedly been told that private litigation is our only remaining option.
We Didn't Ask for Help First
Before asking anyone else to contribute, we invested everything we could ourselves.
We retained legal counsel.
We spent months gathering records, organizing evidence, reviewing engineering and feasibility studies, documenting infrastructure concerns, interviewing customers, and building what we believe is a substantial factual foundation for litigation.
Today, that effort has reached a standstill.
Not because the work is finished.
Not because the questions have been answered.
But because we have exhausted the financial resources required to continue.
Meanwhile, the disputed account remains under an active threat of water shutoff.
Why This Matters
This campaign is about much more than one family's water bill.
It raises an important public-interest question:
How should an essential service like drinking water be held accountable when customers have no practical alternative provider and few meaningful avenues for independent review?
Access to safe, reliable drinking water is a basic necessity.
Regardless of whether a utility is publicly or privately owned, every community deserves transparent governance, accurate billing, responsible infrastructure management, meaningful customer protections, and fair opportunities to resolve disputes.
No family should lose access to an essential resource simply because they cannot afford to challenge disputed actions by their only water provider after every available regulatory avenue has failed.
How Your Support Helps
Every dollar raised will help continue this effort by funding:
• Attorney fees and litigation costs
• Expert consultation and engineering review
• Court expenses
• Document review and evidence organization
• Investigation of utility records, infrastructure, and governance issues
• Community outreach and advocacy
Supporting documentation is available, including utility records, agency correspondence, engineering and feasibility study materials, customer survey responses, photographs, and detailed timelines.
Whether you are able to donate, share this campaign, introduce us to someone who may be able to help, or simply raise awareness, your support brings us one step closer to ensuring these issues receive the independent review they deserve.
Thank you for standing with our family and the Parkdale community as we work to protect accountability, transparency, and access to safe, reliable drinking water.
— Desiree Ratliff
